The present invention relates to a wheel suspension for road vehicles, in particular non-power-driven semi-rigid axles for private cars and light commercial vehicles, having a crossmember of the axle, axle carrier or swinging axle link and trailing arms attached at both ends of the crossmember of the axle, axle carrier or swinging axle link, whereby the trailing arm features means for attachment to the vehicle and means for accommodating the wheel
According to the type of spring suspension and the form of wheel drive, various types of construction are employed for the wheel suspension on vehicles such as private cars or light commercial vehicles. Among the most widely used wheel suspensions for the rear wheels are rigid and semi-rigid axles. Especially in vehicles with front wheel drive, the rear axle may be simple in design. For that reason the rigid, or more exactly semi-rigid axles, the swinging axle axis, the swinging axle link axis and the torsion link axis have proved themselves best as wheel suspension means in front wheel drive vehicles.
In these types of axle construction the rear wheels are mounted on trailing arms at the rear end of the trailing arms, i.e. rear with respect to the direction of driving. In the case of a swinging axle axis the trailing arms are welded together at their front end via a crossmember of the axle or a swinging axle of spring steel. In the case of the swinging axle link axis the trailing arms are welded together at about their middle via a swinging axle link of torsionally weak U-shaped steel section. In the torsion link axis the trailing arms are joined together at their rear end via a torsion link.
Keeping the unsprung mass as small as possible has been a requirement, reducing the weight of the whole vehicle has now become an issue. A further requirement is to reduce the number of different construction elements in the vehicle and to increase the number of the same elements.